From bug-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Wed Nov 20 10:20:37 2002
Subject: Re: "global" bug 2.1.39?
From: Paul Kienzle <pkienzle at jazz dot ncnr dot nist dot gov>
To: "John W. Eaton" <jwe at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu>
Cc: Randy Gober <GoberR at bellsouth dot net>, bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:20:35 -0500

On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 10:06:07AM -0600, John W. Eaton wrote:
> On 20-Nov-2002, Randy Gober <GoberR at bellsouth dot net> wrote:
> 
> | If I enter at the command line:
> | 
> | >>global c = 3, d, e = 5
> | 
> | I get the error==>
> | error: `d' undefined near line 4 column 15
> | 
> | 
> | But I can enter:
> | global c = 3
> | global d
> | global e = 5
> | 
> | With no problem. 
> | 
> | The same goes when I use global inside a function. Looking at the Octave
> | online help, "global c = 3, d, e = 5" is legal command (it is in fact an
> | example :-)
> 
> The docs are wrong now.  For compatibility with Matlab the comma is
> now a command separator.
> 
> If you want to declare multiple global variables on one line, omit the
> commas.
> 
> If you want your code to be Matlab compatible, don't use initializers
> in the global statement.  Write
> 
>   global c d e
>   c = 3;
>   e = 5;
> 
> instead.

Shouldn't that be:

   global c d e
   if ~exist('c','var'), c=3; end
   if ~exist('e','var'), e=5; end

otherwise it will overwrite the previously initialized values if there
are any.

Paul Kienzle
pkienzle at users dot sf dot net



-------------------------------------------------------------
Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
-------------------------------------------------------------